Adventures in the Everfree
by StormRunner98
Summary: Storm Runner, your average pegasus with huge dreams of flying alongside the Wonderbolts, gets derailed from his daily routine by a terrible incident at the weather facility. With only himself and his closest friends alongside him, they must traverse the widespread Everfree forest to search for a way of escape, while finding romance along the way. Danger and love are in the air.
1. Chapter 1

**Post Authors Note: **

**Hello audience! I would first like to point out that this is my first story and that I am very excited to see where it goes! I will try to keep **

**submitting chapters routinely and your reviews/criticism is greatly appreciated. This first chapter is kind of short, but I can promise you, the **

**ones to come will definitely be longer. So without further ado, I would like to present, CHAPTER ONE. **

_Chapter 1: Sleepy Head_

The swift, crisp, autumn wind was unlike anything I had ever felt before as I led a "V" formation with the wonderbolts who were flying at my sides.

"WOOHOO!" I shouted ecstatically.

"Hey, Stormrunner, get your head out of the clouds! This is going to be the grand finale!" Ordered a rather stressed Spitfire. "It's got to be executed without

flaw!"

"Relax, its gonna be fine."

We started to fly upwards straight into the sky while gathering all the energy we could muster to pull off perhaps one of the greatest feats of all time, distorting

the invisible flow of magic just long enough to allow the audience a glimpse of pure magic, a rare thing to be seen by the naked eye.

As soon we reached peak altitude, we began our immediate descent. Heck, we were going so fast, my cheeks started flapping under the huge amount of force

that was upon us.

About half way down, I began to see specks of pure magic dotting the airspace around us, and that's when I noticed that somewhere along the lines, we hadn't

gained enough altitude or speed to pull off the spectacle without crashing.

I began to panic and attempt to slow down, but we were going rainboom speed already.

"HEY! GUYS! WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, but all I got back was silence.

"GUYS! DO YOU HEAR ME?! PULL UP!"

No response.

I started breaking a sweat in my panic as I saw the ever-nearing ground approaching faster than Pinkie Pie on a sugar high.

"No, no, no, it can't end like this!" I said as we were about 50 feet away from the ground, and then we hit. Everything went black. I opened my eyes and immediately realized I was still in my bed, in my house up in Cloudsdale. The whole event had been a dream!

"Thank Celestia…" I let out softly.

I got up looked in the mirror and saw what I saw everyday, a charcoal coated Pegasus with electric blue hair and lightning yellow eyes with a storm cloud with a lightning bolt shooting out of it as a cutie mark.

Yup, that's me. Good ol' Storm Runner

I trotted around the room thinking about my latest dream. I had always been my dream to soar through the skies alongside wonderbolts, but the dream I had last night almost seemed ill omened.

I suddenly turned and saw the alarm clock.

"Oh crap! I'm gonna be late for work again! Rainbow's gonna kill me!"

And with that I threw on my weather facility uniform and dashed out the door.

I didn't know what it was, but for some odd reason I felt as if today was going to be a day to remember…


	2. Chapter 2

**Post Authors Note: **

**Hello once again audience! I hope you are enjoying it so far, and I am truly sorry for any formatting errors you might come across as the story continues as I am still getting used to this. Today I realized I might hold a little competition to see who has the best OC villain in the story. I realized I needed one and thought it would be a fun way to choose one. If your interested, PM me your villain OC with colors marks, details, everything and it will be judged by me and a few others. **

**Almost forgot, OC LightingThrash belongs to author: LightningThrash.**

**And now, I present to you, CHAPTER TWO!**

_Chapter 2: Disaster at…SKY?_

I was zooming as fast my nimble wings would take me, but I already knew I was doomed to be late. I always hated being late, yet the satisfaction of sleeping in is so gratifying… Ah whatever. As I trotted up to the glass doors of the weather facility, I dusted myself off and tried to look as cool as I possibly could as to turn attention away from my tardiness.

Walking in, I noticed that heads were turned and laughing…AT ME. My face turned red as I thought about what I was doing so hilariously wrong. Rainbow trotted on up to me in slight hysterics.

"Hey, what's so funny?" I demanded to know.

"HAHA, oh nothing really, only that ridiculous strut you just did when you walked in!" Rainbow said while still giggling.

"Were you trying to be Miss Equestria again?" Rainbow said jokingly.

Guess I overdid it with the coolness…

"Ya know, that ridiculous little act you put on there might have been so ridiculous, that I won't even be upset that your FORTY-FIVE FRIGGIN MINUTES LATE." Rainbow said now with a serious expression on her face.

"You being late makes all these other pegasi's work, INCLUDING ME, harder. So, what's your creative excuse this time?" Rainbow said.

"Uhh, the doggie ate my homework?" I said.

Rainbow just face hooved and said, "haha, whatever. Get outta here ya late little punk."

Well, at lease Rainbow was relieved of her serious attitude.

'You got it!" I shouted back.

Ugh, work is never fun. As I began to do some cloud busting my mind quickly swayed to ANYTHING anyone else was doing. Yeah, it's not as fun as it looks. I got a little bored so I kind of started to pretend that I was a superhero, and the clouds were some sort of…puffy ninjas? Truth be told, it really helps! You may get laughed at again, but it gets the job done.

Towards the end of my shift one of my closest friends, Lightning Thrash walked over to me.

"Sup dude?" Lightning asked.

Lightning was a pretty tall red-coated Pegasus with Emerald Eyes. His mane and tail were yellow, but the mane had little green lightning like streak flowing through the middle. His cutie-mark was a Storm cloud as well, except his had lightning streaking out of it from most angles.

"Not much. Just some good old cloud busting. You finish your shift?" I asked.

"Yup. You would have too if you weren't always freakin sleeping in.", He said

"I NEED MY SLEEP!" I shouted.

"SCREW YOUR SLEEP, YOU NEED YOUR ASS HERE! Do you even remember why we're here in the first place?" Lightning inquired.

"Yeah, yeah…to gather enough bits to pay for the Wonderbolts Academy…" I sighed.

"There you go." Lightning stated. "Well, anyways, the reason I came for was to tell you that Rainbow found something big in some ancient section of the weather factory!"

"Oh yeah? What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know yet, but come on let's go!"

After trotting around the maze of a weather facility, we finally found some sort of secret corridor where Rainbow was waiting inspecting some sort of device.

"Why is it so dim in this room?" I thought to myself.

"FINALLY, here you guys are!" Rainbow said as if she had been waiting a few days. Or months. Or years for that matter.

"Well, yeah, it kind of took us awhile to find you considering you didn't actually help us find this place." Lightning said,

"How did you find me here then?" Rainbow asked.

"We followed the sound of your impatience." I said with a grin.

"Oh whatever…" Dash said turning around.

"So, what have we got here?" I said.

"Wait is anyone around? Because I honestly don't even know if we can even be here." Rainbow said scoping around. "Okay, looks like we're alone." Rainbow said rather sure of herself, but little did she know someone was lurking in the shadows of that very room…

"All right, well supposedly, this monster of a machine was used in the Great Equestrian war to release powerful tornadoes, capable of destroying things and sending them to oblivion. I read about these in the history books at the Academy." Rainbow said smiling at her "infinite knowledge".

"Well then, shouldn't this be heavily guarded so that is doesn't fall into the wrong hands?" I asked with a confused look.

"Yeah probably…" Rainbow said almost as if she totally disregarded what I had just said.

"Can we test it?" Lightning asked.

"Of course not! Who knows how much power this thing can hold, or…or, the danger it could hold! However…it IS pretty cool…" Rainbow said eying the huge machine. "Maybe we can give it a whirl at the lowest speed perhaps? Maybe even step inside? I mean, the lowest speed couldn't possibly be dangerous."

"I don't know Rainbow… aw, who am I kidding. TO HELL WITH SAFETY!" I exclaimed.

"ALL RIGHT!" she said.

"Yeah, and um, how the hell does this thing work, exactly?" Lightning asked.

"Oh, um…RIGHT OVER HERE!" Rainbow said pointing to a red lever. "red levers always start things!" said Rainbow rather enthusiastically, and with that, she pushed the lever up one level.

Nothing happened.

"Hmm. I could have sworn this thing would sound more…machine-y…" Rainbow said,

"Um, I'm pretty sure it's off." Lightning said.

I chimed in with my thoughts and said, "Hey, maybe something's wrong with the interior of the…thing?"

"I seriously doubt it, but we can always check."

All three of us slowly walked into the huge glass cylinder, where it looked like a piston mechanism pushed the tornado up and out to the surface world.

"Hey! I think I found the issue!" Rainbow said excitedly. "It's this loose cable! Lemme just shove that into place…"

As Rainbow was talking, I heard a muffled crank sound.

"Hey, you hear somth-" I tried to say.

"GOT IT!" Rainbow said over my talking.

And with the joining of the two cables, the sliding glass door slid shut and started operating as it was supposed to.

"Oh crap…" I said.

"No no no, its okay, I only turned the lever up one level! The cycle should be done in no time." Rainbow reassured.

I felt the wind speeds rising rapidly.

Lightning peeked out through the glass cylinder and saw the lever. IT WAS ON THE MAX POWER CAPACITY!

"RAINBOW! I THOUGHT YOU ONLY TURNED IT UP ONE LEVEL!" Lightning shouted.

"I DID!" She shouted back. "IT DOESN"T MATTER, AS LONG AS THE CONTROL FOR THE PISTON ISN"T TOUCHED WE SHOULDN'T GET EJECTED OUT OF CLOUDSDALE!" Rainbow screamed over the sound of rushing wind.

It was getting quite scary in there as wind speeds almost took my breath away. I squinted trough the cloudy winds circling about me, when I saw a mysterious hooded silhouetted pony trot slowly over to the piston controls.

"HEY! HEY YOU! GET US OUTTA HERE!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

This character seemed unfazed at my plea for help. Instead he kept on as to what he was doing.

"CAAAAN YOUU HEEAAAR MEEE!?" I shouted. By this point the winds were so fast, I was kind of hovering above the ground.

The mysterious hooded pony kept on working steadily and finally, a glass case flipped up with a red button on it that read, "FIRE", and wouldn't you know it, that son of a bitch pressed it. He lifted his hood and eyed me, but I couldn't make out any facial features due to the fact that I was squinted and the air was flying at like two hundred miles per hour into my freakin eyes!

"BRACE YOURSELVES!" I shouted.

We started spinning faster and faster around the cylinder eventually floating upwards in the twister of destruction as it eventually came out of the weather facility and rushed through PonyVille destroying everything in its wake. We started spinning even faster when all of the sudden Rainbow's orbit and mine collided; we bashed our heads on each other and were out like a light.

To think, I didn't even finish my shift…

**End author's Note:**

**And the shift will never be finished…**

**I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far!**

**Don't forget to leave a review or the mysterious hooded pony will sabotage the one thing you love…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Post Author's Note: **

**Heeeeelloooo once again audience! **

**First thing I would like to say is I would like to thank all of you who are following the story and leaving encouraging reviews. It is extremely appreciated and again I thank you.**

**Another thing I would like to say is that I'm going to try and post a chapter every other day, more or less, so you can be expecting one, two days from now if all goes well. **

**Reminder: Villain OC submissions still needed and greatly appreciated.**

**All righty then, if there are no more announcements, then here we are with…**

***Drum-roll***

**CHAPTER THREE!**

_Chapter 3: The Never Ending Everfree_

My eyes slowly opened and all I could make out were fuzzy images. There was a constant pounding in my head that Berry Punch probably felt after a long night of strong drink.

I blinked again and images came clearer now. Looking around, I noticed that Rainbow and Lightning Thrash weren't around, and I was in some sort of forest...

"HEY!" I shouted. "RAINBOW? Lightning? HELLLO!"

"Stormy, I understand you never got to finish your shift, but can you please stop it with all that yelling?" I heard an all-too familiar voice say.

"Rainbow? Is that you?!" I said with a ridiculous toothy grin on my face. I turned around fully and realized she was right behind me. Wow. I suck at looking for people.

In pure joy that Rainbow had survived, I gave her a HUGE hug.

"He- HEY! OW! WATCH IT!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Geez, I was just a little excited you were ALIVE. But I guess if you don't care that I care about your own well being than I gue-"

"NO, it's not that." Rainbow cut me off. "It's my wing. I think I broke it on the way down…Besides, I think if it weren't for the pain, I would've have really enjoyed it." Rainbow said dropping her voice in the last sentence.

"What was that last part?" I asked.

"Nothing…nothing at all." Rainbow said nervously.

"Hmm…well have you seen Lightning Thrash anywhere? I would have thought he would be here with us…" I said.

I heard a few ruffles of the leaves in the tree beside us.

"I'M UP HERE Y'ALL!" Lightning shouted. "WHOA!"

***thud***

I walked over to Lightning, who was still on the ground and said, "Hey Lightning, did you have a nice... FALL! HAHAHA!"

"Shut up Storm…" Lightning said. And with that, he slugged me playfully in the arm.

"Hey, I know you guys are just having the time of your life playing around like children and making slightly witty but terrible puns, but I kind of just broke my wing, so if you two would help, ya know, I would like that. A lot." Rainbow said a bit sarcastically.

"Aw, I'm sorry Rainbow." I said while helping her up.

Damn, I really wish we wore clothes so I would have something to wrap her wing with…

"Hey, there are some vines over here! I'll use these to wrap up your broken wing, okay?"

I said.

"Okay, just don't be too rough with it okay? It really hurts…" Rainbow said with a look of pain on her face.

Poor thing. Why couldn't it be me?

"Don't worry Dashie, I'll fix you up." I said. Oh crap. Nobody called her Dashie except for her best girlfriends, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and PinkiePie, and I was CERTAINLY not any of those people.

I awaited some sort of remark telling me to never call her that again or something along those lines, but instead, she just said nothing. All I got back was a nod.

Hmm. We must be good friends…UNLESS! SHE LIK-

Rainbow interrupted my thoughts saying, "Hey, you gonna wrap my wing, or what?"

"Yeah, yeah, here goes nothing." And with that, I perfectly executed an awesome wing wrapping. Should I be a doctor or what?

"Dude, I'm waiting!" Rainbow said impatiently.

"I already did it." I said proud of my work.

"Really? I hardly felt a thing. Are you a doctor?" Rainbow said Awestruck by the fact that the procedure was painless.

"Nope. Just very careful with the things I care most about." I said. CRAP. WHAT AM I SAYING?

"Aw, Stormy that's sweet." Rainbow said, blushing a little? I didn't even know that pony could feel bashful!

I just smiled and took in my surroundings. There were trees. LOTS OF FRIGGING TREES. I also saw vines, shrubbery, pretty tall grass and exotic plants and a little pond not too far from us.

"Where are we exactly? I asked Rainbow.

"Umm, if I remember correctly, I think this is the Everfree Forest…but I Have never seen it this dark and jungle like all over the place. There's a slight chance we may have landed in the center…"Rainbow said slightly unsure of herself.

Hmm…if we were in the Everfree, probably the most dangerous place in Equestria, minus the changeling hive, than that could mean we are possibly stuck here for some time…A LONG time. Normally, I would just gather everyone up and use our wings to fly back and kick the ass of whoever fired the stupid device, but Rainbow's wing is broken, and I am most definitely NOT sending someone alone. So until Rainbow's wing feels better, here we stay.

It's going to be a long…day? Month? Year? AW FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKIN EVERFREE!

"Hey, where did Lightning wander off too?" I asked Rainbow

"Um, I don't really know." She replied a little nervous

Well that's just great. We spend two seconds in the Everfree, and we already lost somebody. Are we responsible or what?

"LIGHTNING!" I shouted.

"LIGHTNING!" Rainbow echoed.

I saw a little ripple in the pond, and I cautiously walked over to it.

"Lightning?" I asked softly.

Then all of the sudden somepony dashed quickly out of the water and tackled me.

My adrenaline started pumping, and without noticing the figure that tackled me, I winded up and punched him straight in the snout!

"OW-OW-OW-OW! Geez Storm! Learn how to take a joke…am I bleeding? You might have freakin broke my snout dammit!" Lightning Thrash said rather annoyed.

"TAKE A JOKE?" I shouted, "WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EVERFREE FOREST! POPPING OUT OF NOWWHERE AND GIVING ME A HEART ATTACK IS NOT A FREAKIN JOKE!" I yelled.

I took a breath and slumped back against a tree still breathing rapidly.

"I'm sorry Storm…I thought it would be funny." Lightning said sorrowfully.

"Aw, it's okay dude. We have been friends since high school." I said smiling.

"Yup. Lightning said. "So, what do we do from here?"

"I don't quite know. There are an extremely wide variety of plants and animals alike here that haven't been researched yet, or even found! I guess the best thing to do from here is build a shelter I guess until tomorrow. Luna should be bringing up the moon soon…" I said.

"Well, so what are we waiting for?" I heard Rainbow say from behind. "LET'S GET CAMPING!"

"All right!" I said. "This pond that we landed next to will serve as our water supply until it runs out, and this little round patch of land is where we can build make-shift tents and a fire!" I said gesturing towards the circular flat ground. "We are definitely going to need some firewood, sticks, vines, leaves, anything useful that we may find. Remember this location, because we need to acquire these items and regroup here by sundown.

Since Rainbow is slightly incapacitated, she will travel with me. You think you can handle yourself on your own Lightning?" I asked.

"Totally!" Lightning said with confidence.

"That's great! All right guys, lets gear up and move out!" I said while turning around to leave.

Rainbow was following along looking for and picking up anything that looked useful. I did my share as well. I just really hope Lightning will be okay out there…I'd hate for him to get lost alone in the dark…

As I was thinking this, I heard an ominous howl and a muffled plea for help emanating from the direction I Saw Lightning walking.

"Oh geez!" I said aloud as I lifted Rainbow onto my back and carried her in the direction I last saw Lightning in.

"Can't we ever get a few moments of peace?" I sighed.

**End Authors Note:**

**Nah, I don't think they're going to be getting peace anytime soon.**

**I hope you have enjoyed this latest installment of Adventures in the Everfree!**

**Another chapter coming your way hopefully Monday!**

**Review, or you too will be punched in the nose by Stormrunner…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Post Authors Note: **

**Hello once Again audience! **

**Well, here's the latest installment of Adventure in the Evergreen.**

**Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to submit your OC villain unless you don't want to be in this story. **

**Ahem, AND NOW, chapter…FOUR! **

_Chapter 4: The Menace of the Everfree_

I was running. Running as fast as I could with a full-grown pegasi on my back.

"Hold on Lightning!" I shouted. I had feeling this was now a race against time, and with the maze of a forest we were in, time was winning.

I kept following the sound of logs falling, rolling, tumbling, and frequent shouts of rage. Finally I parted through a shrub and encountered a pack of five...no, six Timberwolves?

I set Rainbow down gently in front of a cool patch of grass under a tree, and confronted the issue. I saw Lightning Thrash fly into the air and come down on one of the Timberwolves with an extended fore-hoof. One down, five to go.

Eventually, I got into the thick of things and started fighting as well. There were punches, kicks, take downs, our whole mess of attacks to be used on the Timberwolves, but we only managed to take down two together, and even those would soon rebuild themselves.

We were being cornered by Timberwolves. I began to pick up rocks my wing and fling them at our foes, but to no avail. We were hardly putting a dent.

Lightning decided to be a courageous and charge at the Timberwolves with a decently sized stick in his mouth. I was getting high hopes as he was about to strike, but as he was winding up for the swing, a Timberwolf decided to swing a log of his own hitting Lightning in the head, and knocking him unconscious. Well, I'm screwed. I took a step back and saw a rock fly from behind me and go straight into a Timberwolve's mouth.

I turned and saw that it was Rainbow who had used her one good wing to shoot a rock with such precise aim into the belly of the beast. It suddenly keeled over and broke into a pile of timber. We both looked around to find more rocks, but to our dismay, the ground was barren where we stood. I looked over at Rainbow and smiled as if it were our final good-byes. I still had so much to say to her…

The Timberwolves were inching their way closer, as I inched back throwing whatever I could at them to slow them down. I was cornered at the tree where Rainbow was sitting when suddenly, out of the dense thickness of the forest; a figure came swinging in on a vine knocking the remaining two Timberwolves's heads off.

HOLY SHIT! IT WAS DARING DO!

"OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH!" Was the only thing Rainbow and I could let out, because, come on. It's Daring Do in the flesh.

I began, "Thank you so much for savi-"

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAVING US!" Rainbow exclaimed. "

It's an honor meeting someone who I think is as awesome as myself!" Rainbow said trying to get up without hurting her injured wing.

"Aw, it was no problem. Just another day in the lives for a brave adventurer such as myself, but, uh, here take these." Daring said while giving us a box of matches. "I kind of have to run now, but I will definitely be meeting up with you guys later. See ya around!" And with that, Daring Do leapt up over some tall grass with a lion, a tiger, and a bear chasing after her.

"Well that was short-lived, but extremely awesome to have met her. I almost can't believe that just happened." I said to Rainbow.

"Yeah, it sucks she had to go so soon…but I guess she is an adventurer and has to keep moving." Rainbow replied sadly.

"It's okay, she said she would come back and meet us more formally next time we encountered each other again." I said cheerfully.

"I know but still…" was Rainbow's reply.

"Well, anyways, what are these matches for?" I said.

"I don't really know…hey, don't Timberwolves regenerate?" Rainbow said.

"Yeah, but usually not as soon as they go down…so we should use this time, and move as far as we can away from these fiends…" I said.

"But what about Lightning? As of now, we are both sort incapacitated." She said looking at her broken wing. "If I move around, it could probably get worse, and who knows when we are going to have to run again."

"Yeah, good point…" was all that I could think of to say. "You don't think the matches are-"

"For the Timberwolves?" Rainbow finished my sentence. "Yeah, I'm starting to think they are…"

"Well, then, I guess we don't have to move after all!" I said clapping my hooves together.

"And there's our campfire too!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"All right, let's get started! And by that I meant let me get started…" I said while starting to lug huge pieces of logs and timber assembling them into a pile.

"Is this what Macintosh goes through everyday?" I thought to myself.

Well after about twenty minutes of lugging wood over to the campfire, Rainbow laughing whenever I accidentally dropped wood on my hoof, and hard work, the little soon to be fire was finally finished. Complete with an arrangements of stones around the stacks of wood.

I got out a match with my mouth, held down the box with my hoof, and struck the match against it. I threw the match into the pile of logs, and a little flame sparked. Soon, the whole stack of logs was ablaze and I let the warmth of the fire engulf me. I saw that night had fallen as Luna set up her beautiful moon and dark sky over Equestria like a blanket covers a sleeping child.

Seeing that Lightning was still out, I put him on my back using my mouth and wings for support, and placed him resting on a tree near the fire. I knew he would probably love the warmth of a fire on a cold night such as tonight.

When we were all cozy around the fire I heard Rainbow say, "So, It's been one heck of a day, am I right?" She chuckled at the end of her sentence.

One heck of a day… To think this all happened in a day…

"Yeah, I know right. The way things are right now just doesn't make any sense." I said. "One day, I'm living my perfectly normal life, and the next, I'm lost in the center of the Everfree forest… Funny how things work out." I replied losing myself in the fire.

"Hey, well at least you didn't get your wing broken." Rainbow said glaring at me.

"Rainbow, if I could have, I would have totally taken that hit for you. I would do anything to keep you safe. I would hate to lose another loved one…" I said that last part inaudibly.

"Ya, I guess you would wouldn't you. You're a great guy Stormy." Rainbow said smiling.

"Thanks. You are too Dashie." I said blushing.

After saying that, I heard Rainbow's stomach growl.

"And you know what would make a better guy? Going back where we were and gathering a few of those berries we saw when we first got here." Rainbow said with a toothy grin.

"Ugh, Okaay…" I replied. I mean, what could I say? I'm hungry too ya know.

"Keep a lookout okay? Yell or something to let me know if something's not right." I said.

"OH, and watch Lightning!" I yelled back as I set out to go pick those berries.

"Gee, I really hope there aren't anymore surprises waiting out there for me…" I thought to myself. It's going to be a long night…

**End Author's note:**

**Yes, It truly is going to be a long night. You can thank Celestia for that…**

**Well, I hope you are all enjoying, and another chapter is coming hopefully on WEDNESDAY! WOOH!**

**I thank you all again who are leaving encouraging reviews and remember…**

**Review, or you will be attacked by Timberwolves in the night…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Post Author's Note:**

**Hello once again audience! Where we left off, THINGS were HAPPENING.**

**I would like to thank all of you for your reviews and continued support, and those who haven't reviewed, thank you as well.**

**Reminder: OC villain still needed, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah…**

**And without further more interruptions, here comes, CHAPTER FIVE.**

_Chapter 5: It's all fun and games…_

Wow. This forest sure is pretty at night…

I was still on my quest to find those berries for Dashie, Lightning, and myself.

Of course, Lightning will just have to wait 'till he wakes up first.

Gee, I hope he doesn't have a concussion…

While reflecting upon this, I stumbled over a fallen branch and tumbled into a clearing where moonlight was glimmering off those delectable looking berries.

"BINGO!" I said aloud.

The berries were blue, but not blue berries. They were rounded and reminded me of the things Derpy and I used to pick as children. Of course, she would just stuff them inside her muffins. I wonder where she is nowadays…

While picking the round delicacies and storing them into a makeshift saddle bag I made out of leaves, I noticed a square stone slab of sorts with something inscribed on it. However, I couldn't see it due to the absence of the sun. Eh, I figured I would see it in the morning.

With the berries in hoof, I started trotting triumphantly towards the flames of our little camp.

I saw that Lightning had woken up, and now it was Rainbow who was napping. Nothing out of the ordinary for her I guess…

"Wake up sleepy head, I brought some food." I said while nudging Rainbow.

Rainbow jumped startled and shouted, "WHAT CUPCAKES?!"

"SHHH!" I said. "You want more trouble out here?" I said gesturing towards the dense woods.

"Sorry, you startled me…" Rainbow said while yawning. "You bring anything?

"eee'yup." I said mimicking that strong red stallion.

Lightning sat up and said, "Great 'cuz I'm starving."

I divided up all the berries and passed them out. All at once we began to chow down like a pack of hungry Timberwolves.

"So, while I was over there, I saw some weird stone slab thingy that I think we should take a look at in the morning." I said talking with my mouth full.

"Really?" Rainbow asked also with her mouthful. "What did it look like?" she asked.

"Well…" I paused for a moment. "I don't really know…I couldn't really see it."

"Come on dude!" Lightning exclaimed.

"Hey, if you have super vision, be my guest and go scope it out for your self. It's dark out in case you haven't noticed."

Lightning just gave me a weird look and turned around.

"Hey, I'm gonna go to sleep." Lightning said yawning.

"Have fun with that." Rainbow said not caring.

Rainbow and I just sat there staring into the fire as if it was hypnotizing us. I decided that it was late, and I was extremely tired.

"Hey Rainbow, hang tight for like, two seconds. I'll be right back." I said.

"All right. Cool." Rainbow said nodding.

I then proceeded to take off into the air. I searched the skies for the puffiest clouds I could find to bring down with me. After choosing them, I looked down and saw that the tops of the trees extended everywhere into an eternity.

I sighed and thought to myself, "We're never going to get out of here…"

I came back down with the clouds and handed the puffier tuft to Rainbow.

"Thanks Storm! These are the puffiest clouds I've ever seen!" Rainbow said excitedly.

"Yup." I said while proceeding to lie down on my own.

I looked over at Rainbow after I had lain down, and saw that she was already fast asleep.

Wow. I have an excellent taste in clouds.

I turned over on my cloud, closed my eyes, and I too was out.

**Early the next morning…**

I woke up to Rainbow shaking me.

"He- what- what are you doing?" I said moaning tiredly.

For a Pegasus who sleeps a lot, that girl sure could wake up early.

"Shhhh!" Rainbow sounded.

"What? What is it?" I whispered back.

"Lightning. He's still asleep." Rainbow said.

"Why is that an issue worth waking me up over?" I asked with a now more serious look on my face.

"Becaaaauuuse, we should prank him!" Rainbow said grinning ear to ear.

Well, at least she hasn't change any since we got here…

"You do realize that he just suffered a massive blow to the head right?" I said.

"True…true…but still. Can't we do a little prank?" She said beaming.

"Hmm…all right, what did you have in mind?" I asked looking at her now with excitement.

I haven't pranked somepony in ages.

"Weeeell…" With that, she took a handful of uneaten berries from the previous night, squished them up a bit and put them into Lightning's fore hoof.

"This is gonna be soooo sweet!" Rainbow said excitedly. She plucked a feather from her good wing and began to tickle Lightning's face with it.

As planned, Lightning swung his hoof at his face, coating it with berry goo.

Rainbow fell backwards laughing, and as did I.

Lightning on the other hand, wasn't laughing. At all. He instead picked up some more berries and flung them as hard as he could at my face. Needless to say, it had the same effect as when we did it to him.

Rainbow was now in hysterics as Lightning and I had the great berry war. In the midst of the cross fire, Rainbow too had her share of berry throwing.

By the end of our little war games, we all had a laugh and ridiculed at each other, that is, until we realize we had used up all of the berries we had.

"Well Celestia damn it." I thought.

"Well, guys now that we've been irresponsible, we lost all of the berries I had gathered last night. So guess who has to go back for more?" I asked knowing the answer was myself.

"You deserve it." Lightning said remembering who had placed the berries in his hoof in the first place.

I just glared over at him.

"Well, actually, if we are to go gather some more berries, than I want you guys to come along to see that stone slab thingy I found last night." I said pointing in the direction I had found them in.

"All right, I could use some more adventure as of now." Rainbow said.

I started ahead and they all followed, and eventually we were at the same local as where I found the berries, and thank god there were still some left. Parting some shrubbery, I unveiled the little stone slab, in which I could now make out the inscription. It appeared to be a mouse trapped in a cage with a piece of half eaten cheese in front of it.

"What could that possibly mean?" Lightning asked.

"I dunno…" I replied.

Not noticing it, we all began picking berries and eating them while trying to think of what this weird symbol could possibly mean. Eventually, there was one final berry left, and I picked it.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ground opened up beneath us and all three of us went tumbling down into darkness.

**End Author's Note:**

**Suspense! Where did they fall to? What will become of them? Why am I asking you guys? **

**Another chapter coming your way soon!**

**Oh, and REVIEW, or you too will also fall into darkness…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Post Author's Note: **

**Hellooooo once again audience! **

**First thing I'd like to say is, Thank you all so much for the reviews!**

**I find reading them almost as enjoyable as you are when reading this, so keep 'em coming!**

**Reminder: Villain OC submissions still needed, yaddah yaddah yaddah.**

**Anyways, without any further statements, here is…CHAPTER SIX! **

_Chapter Six: It's a Trap!_

"AHHHHHH!" was all I heard all the way down, from myself as well as the others.

The fall had totally taken us by surprise, so much so, that I didn't even think about using my wings to pull us all back up, and apparently Lightning didn't either, because as far as I could tell, WE WERE STILL FALLING. Finally we hit the ground, and I heard something clanking above us. I looked around and saw that everyone was moaning in pain, including me. There were lit torches that seemed like they had been there for ages, and what looked like gold was piled against the walls. It seemed that this dungeon was cylindrical, had dirt floors and only had one exit door.

Oh, and just another tiny detail. WE WERE IN A CAGE.

"Everyone all right?" I asked.

"Ya, I'll be a fine. Just a couple scratches." Lightning replied.

"Yeah. Thankfully I landed on my face, so that broke my fall." Rainbow said grimacing.

"However, my wing survived with just a couple dents. Nothing to horrible." She said.

I noticed her face was bleeding a bit and the crimson blood trickled down the right side of her face.

Yikes, that landing must have been painful…

"Well, if everyone's all right, it's time to face the bigger problem. How in Tartarus are we gonna get out of here?" I asked shaking the bars of my cage.

"Well not like that dummy." Rainbow said.

"You got any better ideas?" I asked glaring at her.

Rainbow simply shot a glance, and sat back down defeated.

I sighed and asked, "Lightning? You got anything?"

Lightning started bucking the cage with all the strength he could muster, and all he did was make the rattle a bit so that little pebbles and dust fell from the ceiling.

"Cut that out dude!" I shouted. "You're going to get us killed!"

What are we going to do guys? There doesn't appear to be any means of escape in sight!

All I got back was two sighs that almost told me we were never going to get out of here.

I paced around the cage for a bit trying to think of anything that could get us out of these blasted bars. Where were we anyways? While thinking of these things, I sighed and proceeded to lean against the bars of the cage, standing on two hooves and extending my fore-hoof on the bars when suddenly, I tumbled over to the left. I looked up and realized that the bars were extremely old and rusted, and I had fallen right out of my cage. Sometimes the hardest of puzzles are solved with the simplest solutions I guess.

Rainbow and Lightning had busied themselves with staring at their injuries and dozing off a bit and they didn't notice that I had tumbled out of the cage.

I trotted around the perimeter of the cage and walked up to where Rainbow was lying down, and said, "Hey Rainbow. Guess What?"

"What Stor- W-WHAT? H- How did you?" Rainbow asked extremely confused.

"Because I'm a ninja, now if you two would kindly walk over to that hole in the cage so we can escape, that would be fantastic." I replied.

Lightning suddenly perked up, saw that I was outside and asked the same thing that Rainbow said, "W-wha? How?"

I told them I had fallen out of the cage when we all piled out, in which they just laughed at me, but I reminded them, that if it weren't for me, we would've been stuck in there for a while.

We trotted up to the exit door and opened it, and to our amazement, we huge gems scattered all over the tile flooring of the hallway we had just entered.

"Whoa!" I said, and oohs and aaahs came from all of us.

Immediately, Lightning went to go grab the shiny red gem lying on one of the tile spaces. He lifted it up and grinned at Rainbow and I. As he was still in amazement that he was holding a fortune in his hand, an arrow shot straight him from the walls, and if it weren't for that gem that blocked it, he would've been a goner.

Staring at from where the arrow came, he gently set the gem down and backed away.

"Well, um, this room is booby-trapped." Lightning said still a little shaken that he almost died.

"Yeah, I probably should have warned you considering all the adventuring books I've been reading. I sort of saw that coming." Rainbow said with a toothy grin that tried to cover up her mistake.

"Well, that would have been nice…" Lightning said grimacing.

"So, how do we tell if we're about to get pierced by an arrow head?" I asked Rainbow.

"Well, if I remember correctly, there should be a pattern to the tiles on the floors." Rainbow said trying to remember the first Daring Do book she read.

I looked closely at the tiles, and sure enough, there were different inscriptions on each. Some were cages, some were predators such as Gators, Lions, Tigers, Bears, and only a few were mice.

"Well, this makes no sense." Lightning said. "How are a bunch of animals gonna tell us how to get out?" He said.

"Um, well, the amount of predators to the mice is huge. If I were, me, I think I would chose the path of the mice." I said.

"Seems legit." Rainbow said while prancing on over to the tiles.

"Lightning shouted, "Wait, shouldn't we test it with a stone or something?"

"Nah." Rainbow replied as she jumped to the first tile. Nothing happened.

"Yeah! Come on lightning, let's go."

After a series of jumping and hopping tile to tile, we finally arrived at the final jump, and it was pretty long.

Rainbow went first, and stuck the landing like a pro, Lightning followed, and it was now my turn. I decided I was going to reach the other side in style, so I got ready to do a super cool flip to the other side. I jumped using my wings to help a bit, did my flip and landed on right tile just barely. I tried to regain my balance, but I slipped off, and before I knew, a stroke of heat flew across over my head. I ducked, having a bit of my mane singed just a bit, and ran as fast as I could towards the others dodging arrows and flames the whole way there. Finally, I made it, and by the time I got there, I was a tad charred. I grinned embarrassed at my stunt, and they both started laughing at my "graceful" landing.

"Haha Storm, you sure are something." Rainbow said still chuckling a bit.

"Yeah, I know. I'm honestly just happy to be okay right now." I said examining myself.

"Well, you're sort of bleeding from that burn mark you got on your flank." Lightning said gesturing towards the burn mark just a little above my cutie mark.

"Oh. Wow, I couldn't even feel it. Until now anyways… Ow…" I said.

"Well anyways, we gotta keep moving. I'm already getting sick of this place." Rainbow said looking around with disgust at all the spiders and insects crawling everywhere.

"Yeah, let's move on." I said while opening the old creaky door to the next room.

"Ugh, can't we just go home already?" I thought to myself as we all trotted slowly into the next room.

**End Author's Note:**

**Yeah, I think I would want to go home too…with a handful of all that treasure of course.**

**Hope you guys are enjoying! Another chapter is coming along Sunday! /)(^3^)(\**

**Don't forget to Review, or you won't be able to collect the priceless gems…**


	7. Chapter 7

**Post Author's Note:**

**Hello once again audience!**

**Don't really have much to say today except the usual OC Villains entries still needed.**

**Um, yeah that's it, so here is the mythical CHAPTER SEVEN!**

_Chapter Seven: Rock and Roll_

We had gone through the doors and entered a decently sized room that was dimly lit except for a glimmer of sunlight shining down upon a miniature pyramid-like structure, which held upon it a glamorous hunk of a diamond that would have had Rarity flipping out.

There appeared to be no other escape from the room except up from where the sun was shining through.

"Guys, I think we all know what will happen when either of touches that thing." Lightning said reminiscing his incident.

"Of course you do." Dash Remarked. "You kind of almost died."

"All right guys, so we knows what happens when we touch it, but how are we going to get out of here? There doesn't appear to be any means of escape except that hole up there." I said pondering our options.

Rainbow looked over at me as if I had just missed the punch line to a joke.

"WELL, then don't you think we should climb up and outta here?" She asked expecting a positive answer.

"Yeah, but you wanna try climbing up there? If you can't tell, it is pretty high up." I said trying to shoot down her past comment without hurting her feelings much.

"We could, stack ourselves perhaps? Lightning said.

"Lightning, that idea is…actually pretty good." I said reflecting over this new method of escape.

"Let's get to it then!" Rainbow said excitedly.

We trotted up to where the huge diamond lay and stared at it with lust.

"Remember, whatever you do, do NOT knock it over okay? Who knows what kind of traps we could spring." I reminded everyone.

They both nodded and proceeded to climb to the point where the diamond lay. Since Lightning had the most upper body strength out of all of us, he was to be the base of our little tower. I would be second, and Rainbow would be at the top because of her wing injury and all.

Lightning stood extremely close to where the diamond lay, as it was the second highest point to the top. I clambered on Lightning's back trying to gain my balance, and I saw it was about one more pony to reach the top.

"All right, Rainbow's turn." I said nervously.

I tried to grab Rainbow's hoof to try and bring her up on top of me, and I could hear Lightning grunting from underneath. Hold on Lighting, I thought to myself.

Rainbow was almost on my back, but she was struggling a bit trying not to further injure her wing. Her hoofs scratched up on Lightning's back a little bit and he let out a little yelp, but she was almost at the top of our makeshift ladder.

"You okay down there Lightning?" I asked in between breaths.

I heard him grunt a little and then get out, "yeah, I'm fine."

Finally Rainbow reached the top, and by this point I was tired, and Lightning was extremely tired. Rainbow tried to reach up to the opening in the whole and use her teeth to grab a vine and pull herself up with the help of her hooves as well of course.

Rainbow grabbed the vine and clenched it between her teeth and said, "I GAH EHT!"

Which I think was "I got it."

"Great!" I yelled. "Now pull yourself up!"

Rainbow flapped her good wing and used all her effort to pull herself up.

Under all the stress of pulling herself up and keeping her balance, Dash didn't realize that she was biting the vine harder than a dragon bites his gems. She clenched her teeth even more on the last leg up, and the vine snapped.

"WAAHH!" She yelled, and fell off, rolled onto me, who fell on top of Lightning, who stumbled over and knocked the jewel off its resting place.

Dear sweet Celestia we were screwed.

Rainbow was lying on the ground moaning in pain, and it looked like she had fallen on her broken wing this time around.

I shot up as soon I had realized that the jewel was knocked over, and Lightning did as well.

We both froze anticipating certain death, but instead, the area where the light was shining simply closed shut, and another cave door opened up from where a dirt wall was in the room, revealing a downward slope.

Lightning and I both sighed in relief, and then we tended to Rainbow was still on the floor, and, crying?

"Are you crying?" I asked.

"NO!" She snapped. "I'm, sweating out of my eyes." She sniffled.

"Well, we're almost out of here." I said. "I can feel it…"

"Come on Storm." Lightning said. "We'd better get outta here soon."

"All right. Here, I'll carry Rainbow on my back, and we can switch later. You need the rest." I said.

"Well, if I'm not going to carry anything, can I at least take the diamond with us and we can like, split it when we reach the surface?" Lightning asked eying the gem.

"Fine. Hey, it might just pay off our Academy bills!" I said excitedly. "Yeah, take it, and let's go."

Lightning nodded, helped Rainbow carefully onto my back, got the gem and we started for the slope.

It was a narrow slope down with torches lined up on both sides, and it appeared to be extremely deep. We trotted a few yards down when we heard the clanking of an ancient mechanism.

"What was that?" Lightning asked.

"You heard it too?" I asked.

We heard a rumbling and tumbling towards us at great speed was a huge boulder that looked like it had been sitting for ages.

"OH SHIT" I yelled.

Before I even turned to run, Lightning was already soaring down the slope at a great speed.

I took off too realizing I had wings as well. My flight was extremely strenuous with Rainbow on my back, but I managed to outrun the boulder…for now anyways. I was lagging behind, and soon Lightning escaped my sight, and the boulder was getting ever closer.

"Hang on Rainbow!" I yelled.

I was surprised she hadn't said anything up to this point. All she did was moan in pain as if her wing was the only problem at the moment.

That boulder was gaining, and I could now see Lightning coming into view again…what was he doing though?

The Huge hunk of rock was literally on my backside and I felt my tail brush up against it a couple times. I could now see what Lightning was doing. He was holding a gate open!

That brave stallion!

I flew ever quicker to make it in time so that Lightning wouldn't get crushed.

We were yards away from the exit point and the rock was directly behind, and the crushing gate was directly ahead. The final leg, any mistakes here, and we were all finished.

I gave it everything I had, dashed through the gate, tumbled across the floor and hit a wall.

Then darkness overtook me and I was out.

**End Author's Note:**

**Hmm… Gems? Huge rocks? That scenario seems vaguely familiar…**

**Sorry for late post, but I made it in time. HAHA, SCREW YOU TIME! YOU CAN'T BEAT ME!**

**Remember, leave a review, or you'll injure your wing too.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Post Author's Note:**

**Hey guys! **

**It's a bit late, but I finally finished chapter 8.**

**You guys know the drill, yada yada yada, HERE'S CHAPTER 8! **

_Chapter 8: _

Everything is calm. The grass and dandelions of the field are swaying idly in the wind. The warm summer breeze ran softly through my mane, and the serenity of it all was almost too much to bear. I found myself lost in the never-ending field of flowers of sunshine. It was almost too good to be true. I trotted around a bit simply enjoying the flowers company and I rolled around in the greenest grass one can imagine. While playing around, I saw a hooded figure standing in the distance turned away from me. He resembled somepony I had seen earlier… Could it be? The pony from the weather facility?

"Sir, are you lost?" I shouted.

Silence.

"Hey! You there?" I yelled.

He just kept standing there, unfazed by apparently anything at all.

I trotted over to the figure, who apparently didn't like talking too much and said again,

"You there?"

Still nothing.

I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "DUDE, what is wro-"

He whipped around knocking me over to the grass.

"HEY! WHAT gives...Rainbow?" I said as I suddenly realized the figure was Rainbow, although she looked absolutely INSANE. Her pupils were dilated and her smile was huge and thin.

"Wha- what happened to you?" I said backing away slowly. The sky went black and the clouds above began to swirl and thunder and lightning began to boom about the sky.

Lightning struck nearby, and I turned away as the brightness was too much for my eyes to bear, and when I turned back, the hooded figure wasn't Rainbow anymore.

IT WAS LIGHTNING! WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON?!

Lightning stood over me with that same look of insanity on Rainbow's face, and looked as if he was about to bash my skull, but instead, he said, "STORM RUNNER! WAKE UP!"

I looked at him in confusion, and suddenly everything began to fade, and I slowly opened my eyes.

I glanced around, head pulsing, and made out the REAL Lightning and Rainbow Dash, although we were no longer in the cave, we were outside in the forest still.

"You okay buddy?" Lightning said.

"Mmm…Yeah. I just had the weirdest dream…what happened? How did we escape the cave?" I asked, filled with questions.

"Well, after you soared through the gate you tumbled around and went unconscious. I stopped holding the gate just in time to stop the boulder behind it. After, there was kind of a staircase leading up and out of the place, so with the help of Rainbow, I lifted you on my back, and carried you up the stairs." Lightning finished.

"Wait, Rainbow wasn't knocked unconscious? I thought she was on my back. Is she okay?" I asked concerned.

"Yeah, she went out for a little walk through the woods. She was pretty concerned about you, having saved her life and all." Lightning said.

"But how did she take the crash landing?" I asked.

"Oh, well, she kind of bounced off your back on the first tumble and landed relatively safely on your back again. After you had finished rolling about of course." Lightning said laughing a little.

I felt my head and realized that there were bandages there.

"Who did this?" I asked pointing to my head.

"Rainbow did." Lightning said. "She said it would be returning the favor after you wrapped her wing"

"Hmm. Okay" I said.

"Oh, and Rainbow carried that gem up here, so we still have it in case you were wondering."

Lightning said.

I simply sat there, now feeling the places where I had been scratched or bruised in the crash landing and I felt tired. I pondered the dream I recently had and began wondering about the hooded figure we had met on that fateful day in weather facility. Who was he? Would we ever see him again? Would we ever see anyone again? All these questions shot through my head faster than the Wonder bolts. I now had a determination to make it home again and bring justice to that…pony.

I got up and decided that we should go find Rainbow and move out. It looked like it was midday, and I figured we would be able to make good distance by the time night fell.

I got Lightning, and we set out to find Rainbow. She couldn't have gone far. After trotting around looking for her, we came through a little clearing and found a huge expanse of pink little flowers that looked prettier than roses, and in the center was a fast asleep Rainbow Dash.

"Doesn't Rainbow usually take naps later on in the day?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I guess she was a bit tired. That's all." I said.

We started to trot towards Rainbow through the pretty pink flowers, and I noticed I was getting a bit drowsy myself.

I yawned and said, "Hey, Lightning. You feeling tired?" I yawned again.

"Now, that you think of it, I do feel pretty tired." Lightning said yawning as well.

We walked further into the flower patch and the more we went on, the more tired we got.

"Hey Storm, I think I'm gonna take a little nap." Lightning said as he began to lie down in the flowers.

"Yeah bro, I think I will too…wait a second. Why are we all getting so tired? It's only the afternoon… Wait, oh crap. You don't think these flowers are enchanted somehow do you?

"Um, I don't care, I just really wanna sleep." Lightning said as he closed his eyes.

"SCREW YOUR SLEEP!" I shouted startling him a bit. "We need to go get Rainbow and get outta here before we all go to sleep forever!" I yawned a bit.

Lightning got up after hearing this, and we both started trotting groggily towards the sleeping Rainbow Dash. We both started tripping up a bit about halfway there, but we were making progress. It seemed that the intensity of the flower's magic grew stronger as you went towards the center.

We finally arrived half asleep, and Lightning used all the strength he could possibly muster just to lift Rainbow on my back, which should have been an easy task for him. I trotted and fell a few times under the weight of Rainbow, and I transferred her to Lightning at the halfway mark.

Finally, we made it out and we walked a few feet before Lighting and I lied down, and Rainbow rolled over softly off my back and into the thick, plush grass of the Everfree.

"Phew. That was pretty close." I said to Lightning.

"Yeah. I like to sleep a lot, but I'm pretty sure a life-time is more than enough for me." Lightning said jokingly.

"All right, lets wake up Rainbow and set out to get out of this Celestia forsaken land…" I said.

I nudged Rainbow's shoulders, and she awoke with a yawn.

"Hey guys." Rainbow said tiredly. "What'd I miss?" She said smiling.

"Well, you missed falling asleep for an eternity, we made sure of that." Lightning said,

"Wait, what? What do you mean eternity?" Rainbow asked.

"Well, I believe you fell asleep in a patch of enchanted flowers that could have had you sleeping for centuries." I told Rainbow.

"Well, I don't think I'm going to be needing that much sleep." Rainbow said laughing.

"Yup. Well, we need to head out. I really want to leave this place as soon as possible." I said.

With that, we all got up and started moving out straight ahead, the only direction we could think of going without a compass, in hopes of finding some way of escape from this nightmare…

**Post Author's Note: **

**And off they go… **

**Hope you guys are enjoying the story!**

**And remember, REVIEW, or you will fall into an eternity of slumber…**


	9. Chapter 9

**Post Author's Note:**

**Hey guys! Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. It's been a busy week, and I'll try not to let it happen again. Also, just a warning, that this **

**chapter is a tad violent, so be warned.**

**Ps. Cover art done by the awesome: h2g2guy and jackiephantom13. Search them on Deviantart.**

** Ahem, without further ranting, here is the long awaited, CHAPTER 9!**

_Chapter 9: Daring Do Back on the Scene_

"Ugh, how long have we been walking?" Lightning said tiredly.

"Dude, this is our first walk since last chapter." I said a bit frustrated.

Lightning just stared at what he thought was probably the stupidest thing I have ever said.

We were walking away from our last little experience, and were headed to who knows where. The sun was burning down on our backs, and thank dear Celestia for the trees or we would have melted right where we stood.

No one in our group was talking and it was kind of getting awkward so I thought I would break the silence.

"So, Rainbow. How's your wing feeling?" I said with apparently nothing better to say.

"Um, it's fine." Rainbow replied.

"Good. Good. Good…" I said thinking of a new topic, but as my brain was scrambling for ideas, I heard the leaves of a nearby shrub rustle. Lightning looked around but soon decided it was probably bunny or some small woodland creatures. I sort of took into account that it could be something dangerous, but I quickly disregarded.

There it was again.

"Lighting? You don't suppose something's following us, do you?" I asked scanning around.

"Mmmmmmmm… Nah." He replied simply.

I looked around once more and saw a bush move a little.

"Hey! Bush's don't move! Do they?" Rainbow asked half sure of herself.

"Not that I know of…" I replied cautiously nearing the suspicious greenery.

I got about a foot away and was about to part the shrubs, when the suspicious thing pounced me.

"Gaah!" I yelled pinned on the ground covering my face with my hooves.

When I took my hooves away from my face, take a guess at who was standing over me about laughing her head off. Daring Do's back I see. I couldn't tell whether I should have been honored that she tackled me, or upset. Meh, I choose the latter. She is pretty cool.

After I got up and dusted myself off, I asked, "What bring you here on this scalding hot nice day?"

"Nothing really. Just dropping by again like I said I would." Daring said coolly.

"I don't believe we have been properly introduced… Who are you three exactly?"

"I'm Storm Runner, this is Lightning Thrash, and she-"

"And I'm Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow said pointing at herself.

"Well, it's certainly nice to meet you three." Daring said. "What are you guys doing so far from home?" She asked.

"Well, it's sort of a long story, but us three were inspecting some sort of ancient device when it was activated by some mysterious bastard, and what do you know? Here we are."

I finished staring at my down at my hooves.

"Ah. Well that's just bad luck… Hey, I know these woods like the back of my hoof! I can certainly help you guys get out of here in a cinch, but it might be dangerous…"

Daring said with a menacing smile.

"I'm all about dangerous!" Rainbow yelled throwing her hooves in the air.

"Sweet. Let's be on our way then. It's about a days journey east." Daring said while gesturing for us to move on ahead.

We trotted, talked, and laughed along the way until we arrived at some crumbled ruins of a huge castle.

"Whoa, what's this?" I asked Daring in awe of the magnificent structure in front of me.

"It's the old remains of our princesses former castle." Daring replied. "Wanna take a look inside?" She said clapping her hooves together excitedly.

"Sure, but is it safe?" I asked.

"Of course! At least I think so anyways…" Daring said pondering any dangers that could be present.

"Then what are we waiting for!" Lightning said. "Let's go!"

Daring took us to the entrance of the dilapidated castle and instructed us to watch our step.

The place was a mess, yet it had some kind of ancient beauty to it. From the torn paintings that hung from the walls to the broken chandeliers, it was pretty, with that added eerie feeling.

As Daring was giving us the one-of-a-kind tour, I looked up at the indoor balconies and felt a slight breeze whiz through my mane. Something was amiss.

I disregarded it, until I felt a slight pain in my side.

I turned and saw a dart sticking in the side of my flank!

"Daring! What is this?" I asked nervously pointing to the dart.

She quickly ran over to me and said, "Okay, on the count of the three, I'm gonna pull that out, okay?" Daring said.

"Okay, but just do it gent-" I got out.

"Three!" Daring shouted as she tugged out the dart harshly.

"OW!" I shouted as I felt a little blood trickle down my side. I was also feeling a tad drowsy.

"Storm, this is a poison dart." Daring said solemnly. "We need to get you some help fast. I believe there's a plant that might be able to help with this specific type of poison, but first we need to get out of here." Daring said patting my back.

"Hey, who fired that anyways?" Lightning asked demanding to know.

"I don't know, but they're probably still here, and that means we need to move, now." Daring said.

Things were getting weird for me, and I sort of stumbled as I walked. I was getting extremely tired and I believe Rainbow's colors were switching hues just about every time I turned to look at her. I trotted as fast as I could to keep up with Daring who was leading the way, but I could tell I wasn't moving fast at all.

As we came up to the exit I saw five buffaloes jump from the indoor balconies from the second floor and faced our little gang with enmity towards us.

"What do y'all want with us?!" Lightning yelled stomping a hoof forward.

No response was given as the Buffaloes began charging us, the apparent leader carrying a sword.

"GAH!" Rainbow said as she dived out of harm's way.

Lightning jumped and kicked one straight in the face breaking his jaw and sent him plummeting to the ground on which he didn't arise. Meanwhile, I was doing my best to fight off one of the buffaloes, although my vision was a tad blurry. I swung my hoof at my current enemy, and fell on my face. I got up, turned and realized there wasn't anyone even there.

"Ack!" I said as I felt a hoof slam down on my back taking me down to the floor. I rolled over looked up and saw a distorted figure standing above me with a hoof ready to smash my brains out. I quickly rolled over to the side, and swept him down. As he was down I gave him a hard whack to the temple. I checked to see if he was unconscious, but boy was I wrong. He was dead. I had actually killed somepony… somebuffalo? Whatever…

I trotted up the stairs to the upper balcony, when I saw two buffaloes surrounding Rainbow Dash who was backed against a corner trying to look as fierce as possible to the buffaloes who were getting ever near. Seeing a boulder just above the two offenders, I bucked it as hard as I could and the rock broke the guardrails to the balcony rolling over the two buffalo below.

Rainbow shot a glance up to where the rock had fallen smiling and shouted, "Thanks, but I didn't really need it anyways."

I rolled my eyes, and woozily made my way towards where Daring Do and Lightning were fighting the leader of the buffalo pack,

The leader swung his sword and slashed the right side of Lightning's face. Lightning took a step back and felt his face where the cut was placed. He eyed the blood and shouted. "Nobody fucks with me!"

With that, he ran with all his might towards the leader, and as the buffalo took his swing, Lightning jumped, stomped the sword down to the ground and roundhouse kicked the leader straight in the head. All that was heard was a 'snap' and a thud. He was gone.

Lightning settled back down breathing heavily and examined his work.

"Aw, dude… I didn't mean to kill the guy…" He said looking at the ground with a somber expression.

We all regrouped at the exit and I was about to pass out.

"Who were those guys anyways?" Rainbow asked.

"They are a rogue tribe who broke off from the rule of chief Thunder hooves." Daring said.

"Hmm." Lightning said.

"But Storm Runner seriously needs some help. Let's get him out of here…" Daring said helping me along.

"Oh right! I almost forgot about him." Lighting said while trotting over to assist Daring in assisting me.

We trotted out the crumbled gates and back into the dense forest awaiting our next great adventure.

**Post Author's Note: **

**Again, sorry 'bout the wait, but here it is! **

**Leave a review, or be roundhouse kicked by Lightning Thrash…**


	10. Chapter 10

**Post Author's Note:**

**Hellooo audience! **

**Today, we hit the TENTH chapter of this story! *Fires part cannon* **

**Woohoo! **

**Anyways, here is the latest installment of this fic, CHAPTER 10.**

_Chapter 10: Welcome to Peach Point!_

My vision was clearing up and I could see things clearly now. I was on my back on some makeshift hammock made out of vines that Daring apparently crafted herself.

"Phew…glad to see you guys again, without being high on poison that is."

"Wup, he's back." I heard Rainbow say.

"Yup. And very glad bout it too. You would never believe what I saw. There was Celestia, and she suddenly started shaking her flank-"

"OKAY, how are you feeling Storm Runner?" Lightning said interrupting me.

"Um, good I guess. What did you guys use to counter the effect of the poison?" I asked examining where the dart had previously been.

Daring looked around a bit and said, "well, there wasn't exactly an immediate cure around, so, one of us had to suck the poison from your flank wound."

"Oh Celestia, please don't tell me Thrash did it." I said looking at Daring with huge eyes.

"Oh Tartarus no it wasn't me." Lighting said with disgust. "And Daring went out to look for any possible alternatives, but that took too long, so, I guess Rainbow figured you would die if it was left unattended." Lightning finished lowering his voice towards the end of his sentence.

I just stared. I guess it would have been awkward either way. As I was pondering this Rainbow walked in.

'Yeah, and now we're even for you saving my life from those buffalos." Rainbow said wiping her tongue with her hooves.

"Well, okay then, so when are we going to head out again, Daring?" I asked changing the subject.

"Whenever you're ready I guess. Do you feel okay?" Daring asked.

I got up and said, "Better than ever. Now let's get outta here."

We began walking again, and things remained relatively quiet the whole way there. A couple hours into our walk, we stopped and picked a few berries to eat, but nothing of importance really happened besides Lightning's occasional whine about if we were there yet, and of course, I asked that too at a point. After walking what must have been like ten miles, we finally reached a point in the forest where it wasn't as dense of the rest of the forest, and it was immensely hotter.

"Phew." I said wiping my forehead with my hooves. "We almost there yet? It's an oven in here…"

"Yeah, I mean, we must be close. Look at the lack of trees and vines in this area." Daring replied wiping her face as well.

We approached a thick wall of shrubbery and parted it. A desert. We got out of a huge forest to see a harsh desert.

"What?" Lightning asked. "How is there desert, right after a thick forest? I just, can't even…" Lightning finished while face hoofing.

"The Everfree is a strange place…" Daring said looking down at the crisp desert sand in front of her.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Rainbow said pointing to a little speck out on the desert plain.

"Eh, I don't know." Daring said squinting to get a clearer look at the black silhouette. "Never seen it there before."

"Well, I'm pretty sure it's better than that hell-hole of a forest. Let's go." I said marching ahead forward through the yellow desert sand.

Everyone followed suit without further speech, and we began yet another trek, this time, through hell itself. We were all sweating profusely, and I thought I was going to pass out.

"Look!" Lighting shouted. "A lake of berry punch!" Lightning yelled with his tongue flopping out charging toward his sea of punch. He jumped and cannonball into the punch, also known as more sand.

Lighting got up disgruntled realizing that he had fallen for a mirage, and gave us dirty looks as we laughed at this little stunt.

After more arduous trotting, we finally made it to the establishment.

"Hm. Peach Point." I read out loud as we came up to the sign.

It looked like a nice little settlement. There were log cabin homes, shops, and a peach orchard behind it all. It seemed like the perfect little oasis in this sea of dread.

"Howdy y'all!" I heard a familiar voice say in that all too familiar country accent.

We all looked over and saw an Orange earth pony with blonde hair, emerald eyes, and three apples for a cutiemark.

"Applejack?" Rainbow, Lighting and I all said at once.

"What brings y'all to this neck of the woods?" Applejack said happy to see some old friends.

"Yeah, it's kind of a long story…" I said reminiscing everything we had gone through since that one day.

"And ah'd be happy to here it over some peach cobbler and sweet tea." Applejack said gesturing us over to a small building.

We all sat down at a circular table and began sharing all the things that had gone down over the past few days, although it seemed Lightning was telling most of it, emphasizing all the details where he had done something "amazing", but Applejack was listening undistracted by anything else going on.

After we had told our tale, Rainbow asked, "So, what exactly brings YOU to this neck of the woods anyways?"

"Well, ah came out here to visit my cousin peach cobbler, and pick up some fresh peaches while ahm at it. This place does have the best peaches around ya know." Applejack said.

"How did you even get here?" Lightning asked. "It's like a million degrees out there."

"I travelled with a caravan that was on its way over here. They didn't mind me taggin' along none."

"Hm. Well, Y'all don't think you guys have an extra room for us do you Applejack?" Lightning said using his own country accent. He was always very fond of that kind of stuff.

"Why certainly!" Applejack said. "Y'all can stay in the building over there" She said pointing through a window to a cozy little building across the way.

"That's fantastic!" Lighting said.

"Anything for y'all" Applejack said smiling.

It was pretty late by this point and we were all tuckered out from just everything.

When Applejack showed us to our sleeping quarters for the night and before she turned to leave, she gave a little wink to Lightning Thrash.

"Dude, she totally digs me." Lighting said excitedly.

I just rolled my eyes and trotted into my own small little dorm, shutting the door behind me. I got into my bed and for some reason, the memory of me killing one of those buffalos shot back through my mind. I shuddered, and disregarded the thought and tried to sleep. After a few minutes, I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Far from the town and in the Everfree lurked two buffaloes from behind a bush, one looking through binoculars and one standing guard.

Pulling down the binoculars, the first one said, "Yup. That is definitely where they headed. Let's report back to chief raging bull with news that we found the ones who took down our fellow brothers."

The other buffalo nodded and they both dashed back into the thickness of Everfree Forest.

**End Author's Note: **

**Hope y'all are enjoying the story so far and thanks for staying with me up to this point!**

**Leave a Review, or have someone suck the poison out of your butt.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Post Authors Note: **

**Phew! It's been AGES! Sorry bout that guys, I got lazy for a while there. (Don't we all?)**

**Anyways, I sure you guys are anxious to get to chapter 11, so HERE IT IS!**

_Chapter 11: Bulls on Parade_

I yawned as I turned out the window to see the yellow sun followed by yellow desert. I had almost forgotten where we were. I had dreamed we were back in PonyVille, before the whole incident occurred… It seems as if we had been gone for ages.

"Rise and shine y'all!" I heard Applejack yell from across the hall.

I yawned again and replied, "I'm rising but I aint shining."

"Come on, y'all got your sleep already." Applejack said back. "Get yer butt up already."

I just groaned and bucked the sheets off. I wondered how Lightning is fairing having to wake up this early, or even Rainbow for that matter.

As I trotted to the dining room of our little living quarters, I discovered Lightning Thrash hitting it off with Applejack, and Rainbow Dash up and chipper in a riveting conversation with Daring Do.

"Hey there buddy!" Lightning said waving over in my direction. "Still tired?"

"Yeah, I mean it is like three P.M. already" Rainbow said.

"Three o' clock!?" I yelled running my hoof through my course mane. "Geez…"

"Yeah, and I thought I slept late…" Rainbow said looking over at the clock hanging on the wall.

"Anyways, lemme get ya some peach cobbler. I'm sure your starved." Applejack said handing me a bowl of the stuff.

I wasn't really a Peach person, but I came to the realization that I truly was hungry, so I started devouring the cobbler with no questions asked.

After eating up the cobbler, I decided that maybe we should move on and head back to PonyVille. That is, until I saw some sort of sand storm out the window.

"Hey Applejack, what's that?" Lightning said catching my gaze.

"Uh, I dunno. I don't reckon I've ever seen any sandstorm like that round here." Applejack replied.

"What the…" Rainbow said squinting finally catching a glimpse of what was coming in the distance.

"More buckin bulls?" Lightning said furiously.

"Come on everypony! Let's get out there!" Applejack yelled.

Outside ponies were scrambling to get into defensive positions arming themselves with whatever tools they could fin lying around. It looked like the War for the Crystal Empire was about to take place out there. I rushed outside along with the other and also took up arms. I spotted a rusty sword and took it between my teeth, while Applejack and Thrash went back to back with pitchforks held by their mouth. Even Rainbow had a tiny hoof-attached blade at the end of her hoof.

"You guys ready for this?" I asked facing the oncoming storm of bulls.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and the bulls also armed with blades were now feet away and the charge began. The two groups clashed in a mess of clashing swords and bloodshed. How many were there anyways? I swung my sword at almost everything that moved performing sword maneuvers I never knew I had. I spotted Applejack and Lightning fight off bulls together as well, and bulls and ponies alike fell from both sides, but the bull's numbers were thinning. After much sword swinging and deathblows, a loud "STOP!" rang from the crowd. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked towards the source of the voice. It was the chief bull, the largest and most painted of them all.

"Why must there be bloodshed?" He said. "Why must there be all this chaos? Instead, let there be one challenge." He said turning towards me. "You with the sword. You're the cause of the death of my men, no?"

"Well not exactl-"

"Good. Get in the ring." He said as a ring of buffaloes surrounded us pushing me in the center.

"Wha- What, I-"

"Take up your rusty stick you call a sword." He said drawing his own. "If you win, we leave and you can go free. If we win, we take you captive, no questions asked."

I drew my sword and we circled the ring a bit awaiting the first strike. The whole area had the stillness of an extremely frightened Fluttershy. I peered through the circle and caught a glimpse of a terrified Rainbow Dash looking back at me. As I looked, I felt a terrible stroke of pain within my front left hoof. I looked down. I was bleeding profusely.

Now within a state of panic I swung my sword over at the bull in which he dodged and swung at me again this time striking the side of my face.

"GAH!" I screamed out in pain. The pain was unbearable.

"Come on! Wee insects make a better fight than you!" The chief said winding up for another blow. This time, I dodged and struck him on the shoulder. He's pissed.

He kept on swinging and I kept blocking and swinging back almost in a stalemate. Finally, he dealt another blow this time across my chest knocking me down on the floor in a bloody mess.

He loomed over and said, "A pity. Any last words, fool?"

"Yeah." I said coughing a bit. "Have fun in bucking Tartarus!"

I swept him causing him to tumble over and hit his head on a rock knocking him cold.

The air was full of silence as I got up, stumbled over to his still body and drew my sword. One down stroke, and it was over. I breathed heavily as the bulls around me started to disperse running madly back to the forest leaving me standing over my kill. I looked at my hooves drenched in blood and fell backwards.

Lightning, Rainbow and the others trotted over to me mouthing words, but I heard nothing.

My vision blurred as I tried to read their lips. My ears were ringing and it felt as if true peace had engulfed me. I decided to embrace it and close my eyes to fall asleep.

I heard beeping, a constant intermittent beeping sound emanating from the left of me. I opened my eyes slowly and saw Lightning, Applejack, and nurse red heart around the bed I was lying in.

"Wha- what? Is this PonyVille hospital?" I asked turning and looking at everyone.

"Oh good. Your back." Nurse Red Heart said.

"Ya had us scared to death sugar cube." I heard Applejack say.

"What? How did I get here?" I asked more befuddled than ever.

"I chased one of the bulls down and made him escort us out of the forest as soon as possible." Lightning said making punching gestures as he spoke.

"So, we're out?" I asked still dumbfounded.

"Yeah." Applejack said. "We are."

"Where's Rainbow?" I asked looking around the room for her.

"She's right in that there bed next to you recuperating her wing." Applejack said.

"Oh hi there Dashie!" I said a bit delirious. I felt like I was going out again. I woozily let down my head and rested after having so much to take in. What a day.

**End Author's Note: Hey! Hope y'all enjoyed! See ya next time!**

**Review, or… sadness…**


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